The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) ruled that Porolis Technologies Pte Ltd may continue its GemGPT trademark application after rejecting OpenAI’s challenge over use of “GPT.”
In its Oct. 28, 2026, decision, IPOS dismissed all five grounds of opposition and awarded Porolis S$10,000 in costs. Porolis applied on May 22, 2023, for a mark covering gemstone authentication and artificial intelligence software services. The dispute turned on what Singapore consumers understood “GPT” to signify at that time.
OpenAI based its challenge on earlier registrations for ChatGPT and numbered GPT marks, saying GemGPT was too similar. It also said the application could harm its brand and alleged that Porolis sought to benefit from OpenAI’s reputation. OpenAI pointed to the application’s timing, less than six months after ChatGPT launched, as part of its bad-faith argument.
IPOS found that ChatGPT was well known in Singapore by the application date, but the evidence did not establish that consumers viewed “GPT” by itself as identifying OpenAI. The decision also noted that OpenAI did not have an earlier Singapore registration for “GPT” alone. The registrar assessed GemGPT and ChatGPT as complete marks; some overlap between the companies’ listed services did not change the overall assessment.
The registrar found that sharing “GPT” would not, by itself, lead buyers to think the marks came from related businesses. Porolis’s knowledge of ChatGPT did not alone establish bad faith, and IPOS rejected that ground as well.
The decision leaves open whether different evidence could establish that “GPT” identifies OpenAI at a later relevant date. Porolis can now continue the registration process, though the ruling does not say that registration is complete.
